regarding what obama knew, obama's chief of staff said the president was briefed throughout the night, and the secretary of defense told congress obama acted soon after the attack unfolded. >> after the initial reports about the attack in benghazi, we received, general dempsey and i met with president obama and he ordered all available dod assets to respond to the attack. >> reporter: mccain also wants to know what also did the president take? in this letter to congress, it said obama himself was called the day after the attack. mccain also asking did the president and secretary of state clinton know about a cable from ambassador chris steves warning the danconsulate, quote, could sustain an assault. he strongly believes that the obama administration simply did not support the fragile libyan government enough in the early days. that led to a fragile security situation that he believes that, at the end of the day, contributed to this attack. >> as you know, getting the answers to these questions, part of the issue's involved chuck hagel. by now, there was supposed to be a new defense s